Today more than ever before individuals are becoming more aware of their own physical fitness and the need to exercise. New gymnasiums or “gyms” are being opened every day to provide a place where individuals can go to workout on various kinds of equipment and physical fitness devices. These gyms are especially helpful and convenient for individuals who must sit at a desk and work during the day and get very little if any physical exercise.
Even though the number of gyms has increased and made exercise more available for physical workouts, systemic problems still make physical workouts difficult to schedule and carry-out. For example, each gym has a variety of workout devices such as treadmills, cycles or cycling equipment and weight lifting devices. Each of these units may be considered as a different workout station. One problem has been the scheduling of the various workout stations so that all those who need a workout can be certain that the proper kinds of workout equipment are available at workout time. Many times an individual cannot achieve a regular workout and measure the individual's accomplishments because when the individual is ready to exercise with a certain type of equipment, that equipment is being used by another member of the gym.
Further, people who go to the gym usually need to know what their routine has included. For example, in the past, a trainer or someone has had to keep track of the weights and numbers of repetitions or “reps” of each of several types of weight lifting exercises. Similarly, statistics must be maintained for other types of exercise equipment. For treadmills and cycles, the equivalent distance traveled should be measured and recorded as well as the speed and time. For gradually increasing exercise programs, there are different segments each with a given speed and time or distance. After achieving each segment, the speed and distance or time should be adjusted to the next higher level and the results should be recorded at each step. In the past, these statistics have either not been kept or have been kept manually by a trainer or an individual member.
For more comprehensive workout programs, a workout on a relatively lower stress equipment should be followed immediately by a workout on another type of equipment in order to obtain maximum benefit from a workout. However, it is infrequent when the next level of workout equipment is available to an individual when that individual has finished at a lower level workout station. Instead, in many cases the individual has to wait for another individual to finish at the next workout station before continuing a workout program. Frequently, if the next station is being used by someone else, a person will cut short a workout session and/or skip one or more stations thereby precluding the achievement of a maximum benefit workout.
Thus, there is a need for an improved methodology and system for enabling improved management and processing in scheduling and implementing physical fitness workout sessions.